Points of Authority
by KeybladeBanditJing
Summary: Kairi, a slave who's simply shuttled from trader to trader, often wishes for her freedom. What she doesn't know is that one of her current traders has a similar wish of his own.
1. Just another stop in her life

I'm not one for author's comments and such, so I'll just let you get on with the story.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and all its characters are owned by Disney and/or Square-Enix.

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"So she's it, huh?"

Kairi gave a half-hearted glance through the wooden bars of her wagon. It was very spacious and comfortable with the pillows that lined it, but it was still a cage, and she was still a slave. And the one who had spoken—what was his name?—Riku, glanced back at her.

So he was her new owner. She doubted that, seeing as she hadn't seen any money exchanged between him and the trader she currently "belonged" to. Probably just another slave trader who figured he could sell her off better here than anywhere else. She didn't like the way he looked. He smiled at her, sure, but his eyes were cold. To him, she was just merchandise, another source of income.

Riku shifted his gaze from her back to the other trader. "I trust you have all her paperwork, and she's up to date on medical history and such?"

Kairi watched as her current trader handed him a thick folder that she knew contained all her files. She turned away from the conversation and lay back down, waiting for whenever they'd take her out and put her in another cage. She heard Riku and the trader talking back and forth, discussing business and the weather, but she wasn't paying attention, and thus didn't pick up much of what they were saying.

"What's going on Riku? Wha… another one? Already?"

Maybe it was curiosity, the sound of a new voice, or just that the tone of his voice at the fact that Riku had taken on "another one" held a hint of disapproval, that made her turn around. A boy with messy brown hair noticed her gaze and looked back up at her, and her curiosity of him grew when he smiled at her. Not the cold smile Riku had given her, but a genuine, friendly smile.

Riku handed the file to the other boy and muttered some instructions to him. He frowned, glancing over the file, then nodded and disappeared back into the small building that was apparently their base of operations. She sighed. Friendly as he may seem, the other boy was still a trader, most likely Riku's partner.

She blinked when he reappeared. So did Riku. "I thought I told you to bring-"

"It doesn't look like she's going to run away," the other boy interrupted Riku. "Besides," he added, glaring pointedly at Riku. "Leashes and chains are for animals."

Leashes? Chains? True, she'd considered running from her traders several times before, but she'd long since given up on that. They always caught her anyway. And even if she did think of it, both Riku and his partner looked like they could easily outrun her with little to no effort at all.

Riku waved him off, giving Kairi the notion that the other boy was always like this. "Fine, fine. Lead her, carry her if you want, I don't care. You're too kind-hearted for this job, Sora. You always have been."

Sora glared back at Riku. "Maybe that's what this world needs." He responded, his voice low and carrying more than a hint of anger. Riku raised an eyebrow at him, but Sora shook his head and waved a hand dismissively in the air. Riku chuckled quietly to himself and tossed a key ring to Sora, who caught it and grinned back. Kairi was confused. Either they got along well enough to let arguments and insults like that go, or maybe, just maybe, Sora didn't really like Riku as much as he seemed to.

But she doubted that. The way Sora had handled her file when Riku had given it to him, expertly flipping through it and glancing only at what seemed to be the more important parts without even checking the contents, it was obvious that he was the bookkeeper of the two.

She watched him with wary interest as he approached her cage, and was more than a little surprised when he stared down her former trader, who was a very large and imposing man, with no fear. The trader (he hadn't owned her for very long and she had never learned his name) stepped aside reluctantly, allowing Sora near the cage door. He flipped through the keys and turned back to glare at Riku, who grinned again and tossed him the appropriate key.

"Very funny." Sora said, desperately trying to hide a smile.

"Apparently." Riku replied, turning back into the building. "Bring her to the hold. I'll get her quarters ready."

"Cage, you mean…" she barely heard Sora mutter as he fumbled with the massive padlock on the wagon, finally getting it open and poking his head in through the open door, deep blue eyes meeting her violet ones. "Hey… can you walk?"

Surprised by the kindness of someone in a trade where the attitude was somewhat taboo, she nodded slightly. "I… think so…"

Sora frowned. "You sure?"

Was she? She'd been in low cages that didn't even allow her to stand up for such a long time, she imagined her legs were far beyond not being used to doing anything other than sitting or lying down. But she nodded anyway, getting up on her hands and knees to crawl towards the door, as that was pretty much the only movement the cage she was in allowed due to its size. Sora backed out the door to give her some more room, but as soon as her foot touched the ground and she tried to put weight on it, her theories were proven correct. She would have hit the ground if Sora hadn't been there to catch her. She mumbled her thanks, keeping her gaze on her feet.

Sora chuckled. "Don't hurt yourself. I'll carry you."

She blinked. "Oh no, you don't have to-"

"Don't worry about it." Sora replied, and before she could protest again, she was suddenly off the ground. Sora threw a short goodbye over his shoulder to Kairi's former trader, then carried her into the building, one arm under her knees, the other around her waist. She knew she was blushing, but whether it was out of embarrassment of not being able to walk or out of the fact that she was being carried by a reasonably attractive and obviously kind-hearted boy, she didn't know. Besides, she reminded herself, she didn't know Sora all that well, so how could she tell who he really was just by a first impression?

She closed her eyes and sighed. She had long ago resigned herself to the fact that this was to be her life, an unsold slave shuttled from trader to trader, never getting sold, but she could never deny that she hated it.


	2. The Friendly Master

Holy crap, I'm so sorry… over a year without an update… .  
Disclaimer from Chapter 1 applies here as well

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Riku looked up when they entered, glancing from Kairi to Sora. "Low cages?" 

Sora nodded. "For a long time, apparently."

Riku nodded back, then turned to Kairi. "Good thing I gave her the tall one. She'll be able to stretch her legs there."

Kairi didn't meet his gaze. Even though his attention was on her, he didn't seem to acknowledge the fact that she existed, talking to Sora about her like she wasn't there.

Seeming to sense her discomfort, he shifted her weight and turned away from Riku. "Thanks. I'll get her settled in."

Riku nodded and went back to his book, propping his feet up on the desk. "Mind doing some filing when you're done? I need to follow up on a couple of files."

Sora sighed in exasperation as he walked off, nudging the door open with his shoulder. "A couple? Knowing you, probably most, if not all, of the files we own. You really need to stop putting things like that off, Riku. Especially stuff as important as keeping up on files."

If Riku had a response, they didn't hear it, because Sora kicked the door shut behind him. Kairi looked around at the room they were now in, expecting to see rows and rows of cages full of other slaves, but was surprised to see only about four or five cages of various heights, all empty. The largest one was cleaner than the others and its door was open. Her cage, she supposed. In the far corner of the room were a small desk and a dented file cabinet.  
Sora nudged the door of the cage open and, noticing the somewhat lumpy pillow and threadbare blanket, he sighed. "Riku..."

Kairi didn't understand his exasperation. The cage was very spacious, much larger than she had grown accustomed to, and bedding of that condition was par for someone of her status.

Sora gently put her down on the cage floor. It wasn't cold in the room at all, but she felt some warmth leave her as he let her go. He squatted beside her after putting her down, his elbows resting on his knees. She could feel his gaze, but many years as a slave had taught her to keep her gaze lowered. Slaves were not to meet the eyes of their masters or traders. She found a scratch on the floor and became resolutely interested in it.

"Hm. Call me crazy, but I don't see what's so interesting about that scratch."

She blinked and almost looked up at him, but stopped herself at the last moment.

Sora sighed. "You can look at me, you know." She didn't respond. Until Sora gently raised her head with a finger under her chin. She blinked and looked at him, unable to stop herself. He grinned back at her. "Don't worry. I won't tell. Hungry?" Taken aback by his question, she broke off her gaze and looked at the floor again, not answering. Though Sora wasn't going to give up that easily. "Are you hungry?" He asked again.

Kairi started to shake her head, but her stomach betrayed her with a loud growl. Startled, she slowly nodded.

Sora chuckled softly to himself and laid a hand on her shoulder. She flinched in surprise at his touch but didn't pull away. "I'll see what I can do about that, and your… accommodations." He looked pointedly at the pillow and rumpled blanket. "But unfortunately," he continued with a sigh. "Riku's horribly lazy when it comes to maintaining files, so I have a good pile of work to do." He rolled his eyes at her dramatically, and she couldn't help but smile slightly at his mood. "Can you hold out for an hour or so?"

Kairi nodded.

Sora smiled and gave her shoulder a friendly squeeze before letting go and standing up. "Great. I'll see you soon, then." He got up and left the cage. "I won't lock the cage, so feel free to roam around the room once you can stand if you want. With this much space to move around in, you should be able to get the cramps out of your legs in no time." He turned back to her when he rested his hand on the doorknob, however. "Just do me a favor? Don't leave this room. If Riku sees you… well, let's just say I'm supposed to lock the cage, and he's not as friendly as I am when it comes to slaves out of their cages. So stay near the cage if you can."

Kairi nodded. "I'll… remember that." She replied, still not used to speaking freely to anyone considered "superior" to her. Then again, Sora didn't exactly act like a trader, or that he was superior. She noted that he didn't seem to hold any guilt about her being here, but at the same time he seemed to want to make her as comfortable as possible, which she was thankful for.

She'd miss this place when she went to another trader. Because after all, every trader she'd ever had had considered her too valuable as a "display piece" to sell, and just kept her around for advertising to attract customers, but she was never sold, and when another trader gave a high bid to use her, she was traded off again. Surely these boys were no different, no matter how friendly they seemed.

… Right?

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There's Chapter 2, after a long enough wait… . Next chapter will be in Sora's point of view. 


	3. I'm going to kill him

He was going to kill Riku.

Sora stared morosely at the small cardboard box that looked like the files in it had just been carelessly tossed in. Knowing Riku, they likely were.

Sighing, he hefted the box onto a nearby table and started digging through it, trying to make some sense of order out of the mess. Some papers had slipped out of their folders, and he ended up searching through the many folders multiple times to replace them.

Once the files were all intact, he had to organize and update them before filing them away. He scowled at the documents inside some of the folders, wishing some traders could decide whether they were going to use letter size or legal size paper, instead of random smatterings of both. It made the whole filing process difficult to have multiple paper sizes… and several of these files were horribly outdated. He would have to update almost all of them.

Oh, yes. He was going to be very busy the rest of today.

He growled to himself and allowed a small moment of childishness as he dropped his head to the table and thumped his forehead on the surface a few times while groaning in frustration and irritation. This was going to be a bitch and a half.

He was going to kill Riku.

With another sigh, he lifted his head, grabbed the nearest folder, and started flipping through it. He frowned at a couple pages, grabbing a pen to scribble in a couple extra pieces of information, removing several papers and copying them down before replacing the originals with his own copies. Some traders and merchants had atrocious handwriting. At least his own was readable.

It could easily be said that while they both had a bit in common and got along well, Sora was and always had been very organized and a bit of neat freak, a good personality quirk for his part of this job, whereas Riku… wasn't. Sora was often cleaning up after the older boy, or throwing childish tantrums at Riku at the smallest messes that he left. Sora couldn't deny that he was probably a little anal about some things… the files and neatness in general, mostly, but he got some satisfaction in the fact that there were a few things about himself that threw Riku into about as much frustration as Riku's habit of making and leaving messes did to him.

If they hadn't grown up together, and were just partners in business, they probably would have killed each other by now. Sometimes that brother-like bond they shared was the only thing that stopped them both from murder. They certainly fought and bickered like siblings, and each knew exactly how to push the other's buttons. Personality-wise, they were polar opposites. Sora was open and friendly, often stopping to talk to random people on the street about absolutely nothing, just for the sake of talking to someone. Riku was very introverted, almost cold. He often didn't speak unless he was spoken to, and even then his replies were often monosyllabic. Riku only spoke openly if he was talking to Sora or if he was making a business deal with another trader or a merchant.

Riku was the businessman of the two. Sora didn't really have the mind to deal with some of the traders and merchants they often dealt with, mostly because he was never very fond of the air they had about them. Whenever they were present, Sora and Riku's roles seemed to reverse. Riku would become open and talkative, talking shop and business with the other parties with the same air of discussing the weather or sports. Sora would close in on himself, sitting stonily silent next to Riku with a look that Riku often described as his "poker face," but Sora just defined it as "pissed off and trying somewhat unsuccessfully to hide it."

He'd thought about it several times, but he still didn't know what it was that made him seem to automatically hate others in the business. Maybe it was just the feeling of sliminess they had about them that made him want to leave the room and bathe whenever he saw them. He also knew that slaves sometimes were treated poorly, and that was the one part of the job that he absolutely hated. He often wondered if he was the only one in the trade who believed that they needed to be treated like other people and not like the animals most traders and owners treated them like. He'd done the health exams on new slaves that came to them enough times to see the scars and evidence of malnourishment.

There was one scar that every slave shared, however. It was small, and usually near a shoulder or the middle of the back. A two-inch-long mark that showed where their Chaser, a small implant that allowed owners and traders to track escaped slaves for recapture, had been placed. Every slave had them, whether they had ever tried to escape or not. And if you were an escaped slave and were being tracked, you'd know it. Part of the health exam was to test the slave's Chaser to make sure it was still in working order, and every slave had flinched or cried out when he'd turned it on. An active Chaser was painful. Whether it was just a side effect, or a malicious part of the design of the thing, he didn't know.

He sighed and dropped the file he'd been working on on top of a small pile of finished files. He looked from that to the much larger pile of unfinished files, and groaned. He needed a break.

He pushed back from the table and moved to the kitchen, intending to make himself a sandwich, and probably one to bring to Kairi, too. He rummaged through the fridge, pulling out some lunchmeat and various vegetables, kicking the door shut behind him. As he moved to the counter and dumped the food on it, Riku appeared in the doorway, a small bag of groceries under one arm.

"Having fun yet?" He asked the younger boy as he moved to the fridge to put away what he had brought and to make himself something as well.

"No," Sora replied without looking up from what he was doing. "What the hell did you do? Throw them in there?"

"Well, yeah. I didn't really have time to organize stuff when I was putting them away."

Sora turned to Riku at this. "Putting them away! They're FILES. They go in the FILING CABINET. Not in a freaking cardboard box! Do you know how long it took me to put most of those things back together!"

Riku shrugged and hazarded a guess. "A long time?"

He was going to kill Riku.

Sora sighed and dragged a hand down his face. "Try about two hours." He replied through clenched teeth. "But whatever," he turned back to the sandwiches he was making. "I'm too tired to argue with you right now."

Riku grabbed an apple and crunched into it while plopping himself at the small table in the kitchen. "That's why Dad made you the bookkeeper and not me."

Sora snorted. "Smart move on his part. You'd be living under a pile of files and your own mess and laundry if I wasn't here."

Turning back to his sandwiches, Sora let the subject drop. Riku's father was still a delicate subject. He had taken Sora in when both he and Riku were very young. Sora didn't remember much before that, and all he really had of any significance to his past was a small necklace he had been found with. It wasn't much really, just a very simplified key on a black cord, but it was all he had, and he always wore it under his loose shirt, never taking it off. Riku's father had told him to hold on to it, that it was important.

Riku's father was a slave trader, and he trained Riku in the business from a young age. Sora he had taught how to keep and maintain the records when it became obvious that Riku would never do it, mostly because little Sora often watched intently over the man's shoulder whenever he was maintaining old files. Both Riku and Sora had learned quickly, and when Riku's father had taken ill, the two boys took over the business and it continued running smoothly. When the man had finally lost the battle and succumbed to his sickness, he had left the business to the boys, mostly Riku, as Sora neither needed nor wanted a large part in it. He was just the bookkeeper.

That was many years ago, but Sora knew Riku still dwelled on it occasionally, and probably wasn't entirely over it. Sora was still saddened about it sometimes, as the man was just as much a father to him as he was to Riku, but he had been able to move on. He wasn't sure if Riku ever would, but neither of them really minded that, as it didn't seem to bother Riku much unless the subject was brought up. He knew it was troubling the other boy now, because the kitchen had fallen terribly silent after that.

He finished the second sandwich and left the kitchen. "I'm gonna go see how Kairi's doing." He said over his shoulder as he left the kitchen. Riku just waved over his own shoulder in response.

Shoving his own sandwich in his mouth to free a hand, he stopped at the hall closet on the way to the holding room and dug out a very thick blanket and a couple of fluffy pillows before continuing down the hall to where Kairi was.

He severely doubted it, given her circumstances, but he hoped she was having a better day than he was. He swore violently as he stubbed his toe on something, and lifted the bedding up to better look down at what he'd "found," to find a very thick book lying in the middle of the floor that he knew did not belong to him.

He was going to kill Riku. 


End file.
